Santos scraps pipeline plan

Clockwise from left are Santos representatives Sam Crafter, manager Community and Government Relations NSW; vice-president James Baulderstone; and Andrew Kremor, general manager Energy Business. The trio appeared at the parliamentary inquiry into coal seam gas mining in NSW on Thursday.
Photo: DALLAS KILPONEN

Energy group
Santos
has withdrawn plans for an unpopular coal seam gas pipeline in central western NSW and submitted a newly acquired gas project to tough new planning rules.

The Adelaide-based company completed a $730 million takeover of rival Eastern Star Gas yesterday and is now the largest coal seam gas operator in NSW.

James Baulderstone
, Santos’s vice-president for eastern Australia, told a NSW parliamentary inquiry it would reroute a planned 272-kilometre Mullaley pipeline from Narrabri to Wellington “as an act of good faith".

“We are well aware Eastern Star’s Mullaley pipeline has been a divisive issue in the community," he said.

Mr Baulderstone said Santos would also submit Eastern Star’s current Narrabri gas project application for approval under the NSW government’s new planning laws for major projects “in the interests of maximum transparency".

The new laws replace the former part 3A which allowed the planning minister to override local councils and approve projects of state significance. Under the new part 4, extraction applications must be accompanied by an assessment of their impact on farming.

Santos agreed this week to suspend planned test drilling at its separate Spring Ridge site near Gunnedah in northern NSW until after the Namoi water study, which will assess the effect of mining on the water supply in the Liverpool Plains, is published in March. The compromise ended a three-week blockade of the site by local farmers.

The Labor opposition, which granted all of NSW’s 44 coal seam gas exploration licences when it was in government, said last week it would support a Greens bill for a moratorium on the industry until a scientific study into its effects was done.